The Black Cats have endured a torrid start to the new campaign, failing to win any of their games so far after being heavily beaten on the opening day.

The whole squad has come in for criticism, with manager Dick Advocaat reportedly bringing them in to hold crisis talks to try and arrest their poor start to the campaign.

It seems to have worked as well, with a hard earned point against Aston Villa last time around involving a much better showing as they come back from a goal down to rescue a point, and Kaboul says they showed character in the display.

“The most important thing was that we showed very good team spirit and we never gave up," Kaboul told safc.com.

“We showed a lot of character and that’s very important in football. I felt good, I felt better and better as the game went on – the team improved and that’s what we are always aiming to do game after game.”

Sunderland need key players to start performing

While the side showing more fight than they have previously is a bonus for Advocaat, it’s fair to say that they will need more than fight if they are to avoid another relegation battle.

In fact, it will be firmly on the shoulders of Kaboul and fellow summer recruit Sebastien Coates, both of whom have looked poor buys so far, to starting putting in better performances.

If Sunderland can start to keep clean sheets, they arguably have the quality up front in the likes of Jeremain Lens, Jermain Defoe and potentially Ola Toivonen, to get the necessary goals to push them up the table.

At this moment in time though, that looks unlikely, and another survival fight may be on the cards.

Sean Lunt

Sean Lunt is a Journalism and Spanish graduate with a passion for football. As an avid Everton fan he has survived the Walter Smith era, enjoyed the resurgence under David Moyes and is now wholly embracing the Spanish revolution with Roberto Martinez. Away from Everton he follows the rest of the football league and has a particular interest in La Liga.